I love backpacking trips in the Sierra Nevada mountains, so even quite cold weather couldn't stop me organizing a trip to Sequoia national park. Our group of 7 people - Efik, Petr, Miro, Igor, David, Jeff (the only non-Czech speaker) and I left about 10 pm on Friday and somehow (mainly thanks to David's driving and to getting lost a few times... without coment :-)) we arrived at 3 am. We quickly put up our three tents on one site, which I found out the next morning was not really camping site at all, but the ranger that arrieved was nice and spared us the fine.
In the morning we sorted out our backpacks, got our permits and at around noon departed for our adventure. The trail to the Pear lake was 6.2 miles long, passing three other lakes, and had one "nice but a little bit dangerous" section. This part is called the Watchtower and it is closed during winter. The reason is that the path is quite narrow just next to the cliff to the valley and when covered with snow it can be really slippery. With a lot of small stops mainly for taking pictures, we arrived at our destination - Pear Lake - at 6 pm. The Pear Lake trail is one of the most popular backpacking destinations, but probably thanks the cold weather in November, we found only one other group there - and no big suprise that they were from Czech republic too! We made a quick dinner, Petr washed himself in the lake and at about 8.30 we went to sleep. The night wasn't so cold, the wind brought some clouds, so we had a good night's sleep. In the morning two more crazy guys went for a swim in the lake - Jeff and David and of course again Petr. The lake and the surrounding mountains it were so beautiful we decided to climb little bit above the lake and enjoy the beautiful views. On the way back we stopped at Heather Lake for lunch and we arrived back at about 5 - 6 pm. This weekend the time changed so we gained an extra hour! Before we left the park we stopped at The General Sherman Tree - the largest (by volume) tree in the world. Our last adventure was our gas situation - there weren't any gas stations inside the park and our tank indicated that we were almost empty... we made it to the gas station just 7 km before out gas ran out. Dinner at Denny's was our last stop and we arrived home around midnight!
PHOTOSZamilovala jsem se do vyletu v horach Sierra Nevada a tak i pomerne chladne pocasi me neodradilo od usporadani vyletu do narodniho partku Sequoia. Jelo nas 7 - Efik, Petr, Miro, Igor, David, Jeff (ten jedinny nemluvici cesky) a ja. Vyrazili jsme v patek asi v 10 vecer a najakym zpusobem (hlavne diky Davidovym skvelym ridicskym umenim a umenim se ztratit.... bez komentare :-)) jsme dorazili asi ve 3 rano. Rychle jsme postavili tri stany na miste, ktere jak jsem rano zjistila bylo opatreno zakazem kempovani, ale nastesti spravce parku ktery rano prijel byl hodny a neudelil nam zadnou pokutu.
Rano jsme preorganizovali batohy, vzali si povoleni ke stanovani v prirode a kolem poledne jsem vyrazili na nase dobrodruzstvi. Tura k Pear Lake byla 6.2 mile dlouha, prochazela kolem dalsich tri jezer a vedla take jednim trochu nebezpecnim mistem i kdyz s nadhernymi vyhledy. Tato cast se jmenuje Watchtower a je uzavrena v zime. Duvodem je, ze cesta v tomto useku je uzka a hned vedle srazu do udoli a pokryta snehem muze byt skutecne hodne kluzka. S mnoha malymi zastavkami na foceni, jsme dorazili k jezeru Pear kolem 6 vecer. Toto jezero je jedno s nejoblibenejsich mist v parku, ale asi diky listopadove zime jsme potkali jen jednu skupinku u jezera - a jake to bylo prekvapeni, kdyz jsme zjistili, ze to byli taky Cesi! Rychle jsme udelali veceri, Petr se sel umyt do jezera a kolem 8.30 jsme sli spat. V noci nebyla moc velka zima, vitr pritahl mraky a tak jsem se pomerne dobre vyspali. Rano se dalsi dva blazni rozhodli pro koupel - Jeff a David a samozrejme Petr. Jezero bylo obklopene nadhernymi skalami a tak jsme se rozhodlli ze se pokusime vylezt jeste o neco vyse a pokochame se nadhernou krajinou. Na ceste zpatky jsme poobedvali u Heather Lake a zpet u auta jsme byli mezi 5 a 6 hodinou. Tento vikend se menil cas a tak jsme ziskali hodinu navic! Nez jsme odjeli z parku tak jsme se jeste zastavili u stromu General Sherman, ktery je nejvetsim stromem na svete co se tyce objemu. Nase posledni dobrodruzstvi byla situace s nedostatkem benzinu - v parku nebyly benzinky a kontrolka ukazovala, ze nadrz je temer prazdna... zvladli jsme to ale na benzinku kdyz nam zbyvalo benzinu uz jen na 7 dalsich km. Veceri u Denny's jsem nas vylet ukoncili a domu jsme prijeli asi kolem pulnoci.
FOTKY
